Sartor v. Spherion Corp., 03-4246.

• Decision Date: 01 November 2004
• Docket Number: No. 03-4246.,03-4246.
• Parties: Carolyn D. SARTOR, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. SPHERION CORPORATION, Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

388 F.3d 275

Carolyn D. SARTOR, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. SPHERION CORPORATION, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 03-4246.

United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit.

Argued September 9, 2004.

Decided November 1, 2004.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, 2003 WL 22765049, Amy J. St. Eve, J Susan E. Cox (argued), Degrand & Associates, Chicago, IL, for Plaintiff-Appellant.

Sari M. Alamuddin (argued), Seyfarth Shaw, Chicago, IL, for Defendant-Appellee.

Before EASTERBROOK, EVANS, and SYKES, Circuit Judges.

SYKES, Circuit Judge.

Carolyn Sartor, an African-American woman, filed suit against Spherion, her former employer, alleging intentional discrimination on the basis of sex and race. The district court granted summary judgment in favor of Spherion. We affirm.

Spherion provides business solution consulting and staffing services through branch offices in the United States and abroad. In early 2000 Sartor was hired to work in Spherion's Technology Division, which at the time consisted of three main practice groups: Software Quality Management ("SQM"), Enterprise Application Integration ("EAI"), and Information Design Services ("IDS"). A fourth, smaller practice group provided assistance to health care clients and was known as the "HIPAA" group in reference to the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. Spherion hired Sartor to serve as practice director of the Oak Brook, Illinois branch of the IDS group. Sartor later took on additional responsibilities as director of the Chicago IDS branch.

In late 2001, in response to significant losses, Spherion embarked upon a major reorganization designed to focus the company's resources on more profitable service lines. As part of the reorganization, the company eliminated the role of practice director and renamed the existing practice directors to positions as Business Development Directors ("BDDs"), thus expanding the alphabet-soup corporate lexicon. The purpose of this change was to focus the attention of these managers more on sales and less on supervision of the company's consultants. Sartor became BDD for the IDS group. Spherion hired David Anderson as its Chicago Area vice-president to help it through the general reorganization.

On or about January 9, 2002, Anderson and Sartor met to discuss the IDS practice group and Sartor's role. Anderson asked Sartor to provide him with a forecast of revenue opportunities for 2002, which she later did. Sometime in January 2002 (the record is uncertain exactly when), Spherion decided to eliminate the IDS, EAI, and HIPAA groups as separate entities and offer portions of the EAI and IDS services through a newly-formed group called Application Development Integration ("ADI"), to be headed by two BDDs. Although the plan called for most of the EAI service lines to be offered by the ADI group, almost all the IDS lines (Sartor's practice group) were to be discontinued. The SQM group was to remain intact.

On January 21, 2002, Anderson and Sartor discussed the elimination of Sartor's IDS group. Sartor told Anderson she wanted to become a BDD in the new ADI group, but Anderson was noncommittal. Four days later, Anderson requested another meeting with Sartor. They met on January 31 and discussed the BDD position, as well as the possibility of a position as "branch delivery director." Unlike the BDD job, which involved pitching Spherion's services to clients and developing solutions for them, Spherion's delivery directors were responsible for the actual subsequent provision of services. It is not clear whether Anderson actually offered Sartor a delivery director position during the January 31 meeting. It is also unclear whether Anderson had already ruled out the possibility of Sartor remaining in her role as a BDD in the reorganized company. On February 4, 2002, Sartor e-mailed Anderson to ask for a description of the delivery director job; he sent it to her along with a request that she respond to him "with a final decision tomorrow" about her interest in that position.

Sartor met with Anderson the next day and told him she was better suited for the BDD position. Again Anderson requested sales forecast information from Sartor and again she obliged. But on February 11, when they next met in person, Anderson informed Sartor that he could not justify employing her as a BDD in the new ADI group and that her employment was therefore terminated.

Sartor sued Spherion in the district court, alleging unlawful discrimination on the basis of sex and race in violation of 42 U.S.C. § 1981 and 42 U.S.C. §§ 2000e, et seq. She also asserted breach of contract and statutory claims under Illinois state law. The district court granted summary judgment to Spherion on the federal discrimination claims and declined to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over the state law claims, dismissing them without prejudice. Sartor appealed the grant of summary judgment.

Our review of summary judgment is de novo. Gordon v. United Airlines, Inc., 246 F.3d 878, 885 (7th Cir.2001). We apply the same methodology as the district court. Summary judgment will be granted if there is no genuine issue of material fact and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. FED. R. CIV. PROC. 56(c); Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 322, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986). We view all the facts and draw all reasonable inferences in favor of the nonmoving party. Franzoni v. Hartmarx Corp., 300 F.3d 767, 771 (7th Cir.2002). However, to survive summary judgment, the nonmoving party may not rely on mere allegations; she must present specific facts to show that a genuine issue of material fact exists. Celotex, 477 U.S. at 322-23, 106 S.Ct. 2548.

Discriminatory intent may be proven directly or indirectly. The district court held that Sartor waived any argument under the direct method of proof by failing to offer anything beyond the "bald assertion" that Anderson displayed discriminatory animus toward Sartor. Alternatively, the court held that the evidence did not amount to direct proof of discriminatory intent. Sartor argues on appeal that she did not waive her argument under the direct method of proof because she presented circumstantial evidence of discriminatory intent. While it is true that a plaintiff may demonstrate discriminatory intent under the direct method of proof using circumstantial evidence, see Rhodes v. Ill. Dep't of Transp., 359 F.3d 498, 504 (7th Cir.2004), Sartor has failed to bring forward circumstantial evidence sufficient to survive summary judgment.

Sartor alleged that she was the only African-American employed at her level or above in the Technology Division of Spherion; as a result, while other employees were fired in the reorganization, she was the only African-American at her level who was terminated. She also notes that she was asked to provide revenue forecasts, while neither of the two white BDDs who were retained were required to do so. Finally, she points to the fact that Anderson fired her even though she had been promoted to BDD just weeks before Anderson took over as her supervisor. These facts, if true, do not constitute direct proof of discriminatory intent sufficient to survive summary judgment.

A plaintiff constructing a circumstantial case of discriminatory intent under the...